


Like Any Other

by soft_princess



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV)
Genre: Giles/Xander Octoberfest Challenge, M/M, Post-Episode: s07e22 Chosen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-11-06
Updated: 2007-11-06
Packaged: 2021-02-28 19:08:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 250
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23132212
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/soft_princess/pseuds/soft_princess
Summary: This was just a library.
Relationships: Rupert Giles/Xander Harris





	Like Any Other

* * *

It was quiet.

Too quiet. Xander closed his eye and tried to imagine the sounds like he remembered them. Books shuffling; Buffy and Willow talking; the sounds of Giles moving about, picking up books, and placing them back on the shelves.

But this wasn't Sunnydale. This was just a library, exactly like any other libraries, with the exception being that the books were about demons and magic. And it belonged to the Council. It was several stories high, shelves lining up the walls with tables stacked neatly in rows down the middle. It was different, but the smells were the same. Books, old and new and in between, the smells of them mingling in the air.

No wonder Giles liked it so much here.

It didn't take Xander that long to find him, and when he did, he sat down across from Giles, and put his hand on the nearest book, sliding it closer. "What have you got?"

"A load of nothing," Giles answered with a sigh. 

It was different, and yet, it would always be exactly the same. Xander opened his volume to the first page, and started researching the latest in apocalypse history. "What exactly am I looking for?"

"I'm not quite sure," Giles said, looking up and taking his glasses off his nose. "Xander, you don't have to do this."

Xander looked around at the rows of books, breathing in the silence, and when he turned back to Giles, he smiled. He'd missed this. "Yeah, I do."


End file.
